10,
1846). He was soon afterwards appointed third assistant to the
commissioners of the trans-Sutlej territory; and in January 1847 was
named first assistant to Sir Henry Lawrence, the resident at Lahore.
Lawrence became his great exemplar and in later years he was accustomed
to attribute to the influence of this "father of his public life"
whatever of great or good he had himself achieved. He took part with
Lawrence in the suppression of a religious disturbance at Lahore in the
spring of 1846, and soon afterwards assisted him in reducing, by a rapid
movement to Jammu, the conspirator Imam-ud-din. In the following year a
more difficult task was assigned him--the conduct of an expedition to
Bannu, a district on the Waziri frontier, in which the people would not
tolerate the presence of a collector, and the revenue had consequently
fallen into arrear. By his rare tact and fertility of resource, Edwardes
succeeded in completely conquering the wild tribes of the valley without
firing a shot, a victory which he afterwards looked back upon with more
satisfaction than upon others which brought him more renown. His fiscal
arrangements were such as to obviate all difficulty of collection for
the future. In the spring of 1848, in consequence of the murder of Mr
vans Agnew and Lieutenant Anderson at Multan, by order of the diwan
Mulraj, and of the raising of the standard of revolt by the latter,
Lieutenant Edwardes was authorized to march against him. He set out
immediately with a small force, occupied Leiah on the left bank of the
Indus, was joined by Colonel van Cortlandt, and, although he could not
attack Multan, held the enemy at bay and gave a check at the critical
moment to their projects. He won a great victory over a greatly superior
Sikh force at Kinyeri (June 18), and received in acknowledgment of his
services the local rank of major. In the course of the operations which
followed near Multan, Edwardes lost his right hand by the explosion of a
pistol in his belt. On the arrival of a large force under General Whish
the siege of Multan was begun, but was suspended for several months in
consequence of the desertion of Shere Singh with his army and artillery.
Edwardes distinguished himself by the part he took in the final
operations, begun in December, which ended with the capture of the city
on the 4th of January 1849. For his services he received the thanks of
both houses of parliament, was promoted major by brevet, and crea